A little viral cheer from OfficeMax (first seen on Whedonesque)
And don’t forget to track Santa on Norad
Tags: viral marketing, christmas
A little viral cheer from OfficeMax (first seen on Whedonesque)
And don’t forget to track Santa on Norad
Tags: viral marketing, christmas
BIG NEWS <snark> from Pay Per Post today. It now requires disclosure by participants that the postings are sponsored postings.
Umm, that’s great, but how come that wasn’t in place from the beginning?
I still do not think this is a good alternative to an ongoing blogger relations program. It might be a useful supplement, but it cannot replace something that comes from the heart or the mind, not the pocketbook.
Disclosure notice: This post is sponsored by nobody.
Tags: Pay per post, ethics, blogger relations
Want to get an "F" in blogger relations?
Just follow this model, as humourously described by mom blogger Lindsay Ferrier.
Update: Another way to get an F, reported by Eric Eggertson; try to scam the social media sites (Digg et. al.)
I was tagged today by dear blog friend Mary Schmidt in what is apparently the latest blog meme going around. You are supposed to blog five things that folks don’t know about you and then tag five more people. Here goes.
1. This is the first time I’ve ever been tagged in one of these memes. Thanks Mary. Really. As Sally Field once said, "you like me, you really like me."
2. I am a closet romantic. No surprise to anyone who reads the blog that I am a huge science fiction/fantasy fan. What you don’t know is my shippy little heart. Aragorn and Arwen, Lessa and F’lar, Buffy and Spike, Mal and Inara, John and Aeryn (major swoon) and lately Starbuck and Apollo with a side dish of Adama and Roslin. (For the non-believers, Lord of the Rings, Dragonriders of Pern, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Farscape and Battlestar Galactica.) All started with LotR and Luke, Laura and General Hospital in the 70s and 80s.
3. I have a 6-foot cardboard Spike in my exercise room that my mom gave me for Christmas a few years ago. My husband keeps moving him to the basement and I keep bringing him back upstairs. At least I don’t put him in the bedroom 🙂
4. Bond, James Bond. When I was 12 years old, I loved Roger Moore. He was a great successor to Sean Connery as James Bond. I also thought he was great in The Persuaders with Tony Curtis, a mostly forgettable series other than the buddy chemistry between the two leads. Back to Bond: Pierce Brosnan was great.. Less said about George Lazenby and Timothy Dalton the better. Looking forward to seeing what Daniel Craig has to offer.
5. My most vivid political memories from childhood. There are two. The first is a distinct memory of watching TV in my grandparents’ house and seeing the reports that Martin Luther King was dead. I don’t recall the rest, but my family tells me that I came downstairs and told them that the King was dead. Since the monarch of Britain was Queen Elizabeth, they were confused. I was only six years old. The second memory is a compound – the Watergate hearings and Nixon’s resignation. I was riveted. Probably part of the reason I am a lifelong Democrat.
The big news last week was Edelman’s social media press release tool. If you aren’t familiar with the details, check out these posts.
As usual, the PR blogosphere erupted.
Not all the commentary was critical, but clearly some of the criticisms were spurred by antipathy toward the firm itself, rather than any real issue with what they announced. Robert French had some of the best comments I’ve read; I agree with him on pretty much all points. When a "big name" screws up, whether Edelman or any other, by all means call them on it. But don’t call them on everything they do just "because." It’s childish and silly. The Edelman tool, called StoryCrafter, seems like a decent effort and they gave ample credit to prior efforts like the "open source" new media press release developed by SHIFT PR.
The more germane question, and Robert brings this up in his post as well, is do we really need a social media press release? Don’t misunderstand — I think the work folks are doing to integrate social media tools into the practice of public relations is extremely worthwhile. But I am often concerned that we spend far too much time debating the tools, and not nearly enough time discussing the more fundamental issues. Things like does the story actually have any news value? Is the press release, whatever format it is in, well-written? Are we reaching out — to media and to bloggers — in an ethical, honest manner? Todd Defren of SHIFT PR answers some of these questions in a follow-up post; he says that he’s not suggesting the social media press release discussion should replace the discussion of these other issues, merely sit alongside. Knowing Todd, I am certain that is true. But I still think we are missing the point.
A focus on public relations automation risks turning us into public relations automatons.
If the most valued PR skill set becomes whether someone understands metadata or can navigate social bookmarking, we will have fundamentally changed, and not for the better, the practice of public relations. The most important skill in this field shouldn’t be how well you automate. It should be how well you relate. Isn’t that why it is called public relations?
So let’s keep our eyes on the prize, and make sure we are clearly and honestly communicating the news to any and all interested parties. Whether they be intermediaries like journalists or participants like bloggers. Whether we use a social media press release, a newswire, the telephone or a tom-tom drum.
In fact, if your story is good, and you are telling it to the right people, it shouldn’t matter what tools you use to spread the word. Unless of course you happen to be reaching out to Tom Foremski. In which case I highly recommend a social media press release 🙂
Tags: PR, public relations, press release, social media press release, Edelman, StoryCrafter, SHIFT PR